Website Blocking From Employees PC

[ManishTiwari]

I am in real trouble as a startup internet business owner. I don’t want my employees to access certain websites. I am looking free software or any kind of modification in the Windows XP Pro operating software.

I am familiar with software like net nanny but it slow down the internet working.

Thanks,
Manish

[vincevincevince]

Do your employees need web access? Many companies are better to block all apart from email ports at the router level and only allow web access to those who actually need it.

[Lexur]

You can find a file called hosts in every XP PC in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Edit this file with Windows's Notepad. The first uncommented line of this file should say:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Add a second line with the same IP and the domain you want to block. I.e.:

127.0.0.1 www.blockeddomainforyouremployees.com

Save this file and close every instance of the browser. The next time an employee tries to access www.blockeddomainforyouremployees.com will see just "Page not found" in his browser.

[ManishTiwari]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, They need web access. We are a SEO company, i dont want to access them mail websites and other social networking sites.

[ManishTiwari]

Thanks Lexur. Past days were little bit paining for me as a business owner but now (from today) I can see some sadness around but I can easily handle it.

[jtara]

You've got bigger problems.

You don't trust your employees, and/or, they are taking advantage of you. I don't see a technical solution fixing that.

And you insist on getting the "solution" for free.

I'd suggest you change your attitude, hire reliable employees, and realize that you gets what you pays for.

You can certainly buy gateway appliances that you can install on your Internet connection (making tampering with the PCs to get around it impossible) that will filter websites with minimal delay, if you insist on having an adversarial relationship with your employees.

[callivert]

you're an SEO company restricting access to the internet? That doesn't sound like a good solution.
why not simply assess people on how productive they are?
employee makes you money = good
employee does not make you money = bad.
that way, as adults (they are legally adults, I hope), they can decide whether to succeed or fail in your workplace. Blocking access however is treating them like children and will not end well.

quick anecdote: at my previous workplace, there was a guy who was a star. He was superproductive. I found out that he also had an obsession with sports bulletin boards and during slow times would devote hours to them, to almost obsessive levels. He would do this at work, on work time.
The bosses, perhaps they knew, but why the hell would they care? He was gold.

[ManishTiwari]

Is this acceptable if the employee use office infrastructures for finding new boy friend/girl friend or busy on personal emails?

We want their 100% energy in the project works. I am not in the favor of strict HR policy but we need to take such action when they don’t understand our business demand. No body (Business Owner) would like to see his employee busy on social networking sites in busy work hour. Please correct me if I’m wrong. That’s why; I blocked those famous social networking sites only.

[vincevincevince]

ManishTiwari, it is true to say that when you motivate your employees well and give them sufficient workload and expectations then they will not waste nearly as much time.

In particular, make sure your employees aren't working over 40 hours in a week. In this kind of job, working longer hours invariably leads to time being wasted due to physical limitations upon mental concentration time.